does anyone else get the feeling that we are going back to the days of only a few major companies?  girl/chocolate, alien/habitat/seek, element/giant, birdhouse/baker/flip and co., dwindle dist. seem to be acquiring major rider after major rider.  it seems like smaller companies are being weeded out, which is quite opposite to the trends of the 90s where the smaller companies were threatening the large ones.   nowadays, each distribution company has many companies under it, but it still seems like the major distributors are taking over.  you really don't hear about too many board companies being started any more that aren't backed by a major distribution company.  the 5 distribution companies i listed above hold a vast majority of the major skaters today.  the only companies i can think of that are on its own and have major riders is zero and shortys (zoo york makes $ but i don't consider them a major company with major riders).  other than that, the talent of any other particular team/dist. conglomerate is usually not on par with the other companies and is threatened to be weeded out.    tum yeto, which distributes toy machine and foundation, is a prime example. zero left them, toy machine had its roster desimated by habitat, element, baker, and girl (brian anderson was ed's meal ticket), and foundation just hasn't been getting good, top notch riders.  another example is delux which distributes real and anti hero.  anti hero has there own thing going so we'll skip them, but real isn't that strong of a team.  cairo foster holds them together, and they're #1 prospect, anthony mosely, went to bootleg.  i could see cairo and max shaaf both going to girl and killing this team.   now that kenny anderson left PE, that team is really going to be in trouble (yes, i know they're backed by K2).  i wouldn't be surprised if montoya and selego also leave.  PE has sponsored kenny his whole life, and if he left, then there probably is something wrong. the trend that i'm now seeing is like that of major league _base_ball (and other sports) whereas the large market teams with all of the money (yankees, girl), pluck the best p_layer_ from the small market teams (oakland A's, toy machine) that can't afford to keep a particular p_layer_ (jason giambi, brian anderson).   this has been happening to the kansas city royals, milwaukee brewers, montreal expos for years and is why commisoner selig is now calling for revenue sharing, contraction, and a level playing field for all teams because the lower end ones can't compete.  this seems like what is going to happen to skateboarding if it hasn't started already, which i think it has. survival of the fittest NNG

If zero left tum yeto, why is zero under tum's web site? Doesn't Tum have a deal with zero like Rocco had with Plan B?

If zero left tum yeto... Zero is now distribute by Blackbox Distribution.

(oakland A's, toy machine) Wait a second tho, Toy Machine's team is fucking KILLER. Ed Templeton, need I say anything about him? Than theres Caswell, who won the Tampa Am, Deiggo, Ollied 20 and alot of other crazy shit, and Austin Stephens, another hot am. *current&OBSESSIONS

Rookie, Expedition One (Stefan Janoski) Stefan Janoski is on Habitat now, expect a board soon

Wait a second tho, Toy Machine's team is fucking KILLER. Ed Templeton, need I say anything about him? Than theres Caswell, who won the Tampa Am, Deiggo, Ollied 20 and alot of other crazy shit, and Austin Stephens, another hot am. again, they're faltering.  if they were able to land greg lutzka it might be different but they weren't and it isn't.  i don't care about anyone on that team other than caswell. NNG